UFC officials Tuesday confirmed that the champion-versus-champion
pairing will headline the Super Bowl weekend card, which takes
place Feb. 1 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The event will
also see Jose Aldo
defend his featherweight title against Ricardo
Lamas in the pay-per-view’s co-main event.

Cruz, 28, has not competed since October 2011. “The Dominator” won
the WEC bantamweight title in 2009 and defended the gold against
Joseph
Benavidez and Scott
Jorgensen before transitioning to the UFC. Cruz then outpointed
Urijah
Faber and Demetrious
Johnson to retain his UFC title but suffered a torn ACL before
he could face Faber in a UFC 149 rubber match.

In the wake of Cruz’s knee injury, Barao instead faced “The
California Kid” for the interim title at UFC 149. After outpointing
Faber, the 26-year-old defended the interim strap twice this year,
first submitting Michael
McDonald in February before stopping Eddie
Wineland with strikes on Sept. 21 at UFC 165.